Dissent Is Patriotic
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee's e-mail newsletter
June/July 2006, Vol. 5, No. 4
In this issue:
- Features: Independence Day 2006; Walk to Guantánamo Inspires Activists
- Actions and Resources: ACLU Launches Nationwide Action Against NSA Warrantless Wiretapping; Building Relationships with Members of Congress—BORDC Workshop; The Road to Guantánamo Opens Nationwide
- Grassroots News:
- East Region: FOIA Request Parties in Pittsburgh; Censure Resolution Passes in Hampton, CT; Massachusetts Civil Liberties Resolution Passes State Senate
- West Region: Las Vegas Passes Resolution Opposing the PATRIOT Act; Telluride, Colorado, Welcomes Visitors to Their Civil Liberties Safe Zone; Long Beach (CA) Will Present Readings of Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom
- Around the BORDC Office: BORDC Welcomes New Summer Interns; BORDC Re-locates; BORDC Spring Fundraising Drive Still On
- In the News: Guantánamo Bay; Enforcing the Laws: Congress and the President
Please support our efforts to defend the Bill of Rights!
To contribute funds or stock online, go to http://www.bordc.org/donate.php,
or mail a check or money order to:
8 Bridge St., Suite A
Northampton, MA 01060
Features
Independence Day 2006
July 4, 2006, marks the 230th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The words that begin the Declaration are particularly timely today:"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…"
When BORDC began its annual web calendar of across-the-country 4th of July events, we received this feedback from Milton Patrie from Port Townsend, WA, "My first suggestion is let's call it by its real name: Independence Day. When was the last time anyone wished you a Merry December 25th?" That statement took us back to the holiday's roots—the Declaration of Independence. As we collect events for the BORDC Independence Day web page, we’re noticing that many of you are taking that spirit of liberty to your local festivals, parades and picnics. Handing out Bill of Rights bookmarks and scrolled Bill of Rights. Reminding your friends, neighbors and community members of the protections from government excess that ordinary people demanded when the Bill of Rights was inserted into the U.S. Constitution. And how important those protections are today, when we are losing them to NSA warrantless wiretapping, the new "improved" PATRIOT Act, and other acts of the executive branch.
Please continue to let us know how you’re marking Independence Day in your community, so we can share the spirit of 1776 across the miles with other BORDC and social justice groups as we continue the struggle to restore due process, judicial oversight, and other basic freedoms.
Walk to Guantánamo Inspires Activists
On June 5, human rights activist Frida Berrigan inspired BORDC organizers with whom she spoke via teleconference about the 107 kilometer walk she took with members of Witness Against Torture to Guantánamo Bay last December. Frida, senior research associate at the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center and daughter of the late activist, Philip Berrigan, described how heartening it was to learn months later that the prisoners were aware of their presence outside the gates, even though they could not see them. As Torture Awareness Month concludes at the end of June, we can draw from the strength of that witness and continue to build awareness in our own communities. Visit our Torture Awareness page for more on what you can do, and click here to listen to Frida's talk.
Actions and Resources
ACLU Launches Nationwide Action Against NSA Warrantless Wiretapping
ACLU affiliates in 20 states filed complaints with Public Utility Commissions or sent letters to state Attorneys General and other officials demanding investigations into whether local telecommunications companies allowed the NSA to spy on their customers.
ACLU sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to reconsider its refusal to investigate reports that at least three major telecommunications companies—AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon—cooperated with the NSA in an effort to collect calling information and call patterns on every American.
What Can You Do?
Tell the Federal Communications Commission to Get the Spies Off the Line! It's illegal for your phone company to hand your call records to the government without a warrant. The FCC has the authority and the obligation to investigate the NSA spying scandal.
Find out how you can make a request for your state’s public utility commission or attorney general to investigate whether NSA warrantless wiretapping has broken state laws. This new BORDC web page has the tools you need to start a statewide investigation.
Warning: Holding your breath for Congress to perform its duties of oversight may result in a severe lack of oxygen! Get involved in a local campaign today!
Building Relationships with Members of Congress—BORDC Workshop
The BORDC continues its teleconference/workshop series “Reclaiming the Message” with a 90-minute discussion with three individuals experienced in the art of fostering productive relations with U.S. senators and representatives. Join us Thursday, June 29, at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time (8:30 p.m. Eastern Time) for a unique discussion about how we can improve dialogue with our elected representatives. The upcoming Congressional recess, July 1 – 9, is a good time to gather community members and tell your senators and representative that they need to fulfill their roles as overseers of our constitutional protections. This workshop, part of the ongoing BORDC workshop series, can help you prepare for those meetings.
Rebecca Raiser, a legislative aide with Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT); Corey Saylor, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations; and Nancy E. Young of the New York City Bill of Rights Defense Committee campaign will share with us their perspectives about getting through to the people who are supposed to represent us.
To take a look back at notes, resources and audio recordings of previous workshops and guest appearances by Frida Berrigan, who led a walk to Guantánamo, Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies, and others, take a look at the BORDC workshop webpage.
To reserve a space in an upcoming workshop, please contact either east region organizer Linda Stone or west region organizer Hope Marston.
The Road to Guantánamo Opens Nationwide
The film, The Road to Guantánamo, is opening around the United States. For a list of openings by city and state, visit www.roadtoguantanamomovie.com. BORDC has posters and postcards available for anyone who would like to petition their local theatres to show the film, or to enlist members of their communities to attend (e-mail us).
One of the former prisoners at Guantánamo, Ruhel Ahmed, is portrayed in both the film and in the play, Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.
Grassroots News
East Region
FOIA Request Parties in Pittsburgh
Members of the Pittsburgh Bill of Rights Defense Campaign have been flooding the government with Freedom of Information Act requests for their personal files. Several "FOIA parties" have been organized recently where activists gather to fill out forms together, with assistance from the local ACLU. Since the government seems so interested in gathering data on political activists, let’s flood them with requests for information about what they’ve found! Gather a group to fill out forms for Freedom of Information Act requests to find out what information is in your government files, as the Pittsburgh BORDC is doing. For more information, contact Dean Gerber, deangerber1@verizon.net.
Censure Resolution passes in Hampton, CT
On May 15, the Hampton, Connecticut, town meeting passed a Censure Resolution by a vote of 59 to 30. The resolution urges Congress to censure the President for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping U.S. citizens.
Massachusetts Civil Liberties Resolution Passes State Senate
A resolution reaffirming the civil liberties of the people of Massachusetts was adopted by the Massachusetts Senate on May 4. Lead sponsor, Senator Andrea Nuciforo, said, "This resolution puts Massachusetts on record as questioning some of the most offensive provisions of the PATRIOT Act." The resolution must now pass the Massachusetts House in order to become law.
West Region
Las Vegas (NV) Passes Resolution Opposing The PATRIOT Act
The hopes of organizers in Las Vegas, NV, have been realized. On May 3, 2006, Las Vegas became a civil liberties safe zone when Mayor Oscar Goodman and the Las Vegas City Council approved a resolution opposing the USA PATRIOT Act. The Nevada Campaign to Defeat the PATRIOT Act (NCDPA) went before the City Council in both March and April, advocating for a resolution to prohibit law officers from enforcing provisions of the PATRIOT Act. Their efforts paid off as Las Vegas became the 407th resolution passed, adding to the growing list of cities across the country opposed to the controversial law.
Telluride, Colorado, Welcomes Visitors to their Civil Liberties Safe Zone
 |
A wonderful signmaker in Telluride,
who supports progressive issues, hand-crafted a "Civil
Liberties Safe Zone" sign for free to match the National
Historic District sign already in place at the edge of town.
Hilary White was on the Telluride City Council at the time,
and she convinced other Telluride city officials to add this
reminder of the Telluride resolution to their regular town entry
sign (click
to view the full photograph). Already, this sign has inspired
others in Colorado to pass community resolutions. |
What you can
do: Is this something your community would be interested
in creating for your own town or county? Let us know! Contact
Hope Marston if you
live West of the Mississippi, and Linda
Stone if you live to the East. |
|
Wichita Falls (TX) Resolution Decision Postponed
The June 6 city council meeting to decide on whether to pass a civil liberties resolution was postponed to June 20, and now July 5. Joy Parsons, of the local Bill of Rights Defense Committee, says she doesn’t know whether the resolution will pass or not, but she’s still optimistic because "the mental state of the nation is shifting, and sometimes people can surprise me," she said.
Wichita Falls is a conservative stronghold – an Air Force town. But the plucky Bill of Rights Defense group has joined forces with the League of Women Voters for public forums, a letter to the editor campaign, and film showings to educate the community about the threat of laws like the PATRIOT Act to basic Constitutional rights. It took a long time just to get on the council agenda, and now the date for the resolution hearing has been pushed back three times. But Parsons remains hopeful. "It’s perfect timing to have our hearing the day after Independence Day!"
What you can do: If your community hasn’t passed a civil liberties resolution yet, use the BORDC toolkit to start building awareness about the PATRIOT Act, NSA warrantless wiretapping and other post-9/11 violations of the Bill of Rights.
If your community has passed a civil liberties resolution,
- Follow-up to make sure the city or county is adhering to any promises made in that resolution.
- Start a campaign to upgrade the resolution to an ordinance, as 9 communities have done.
- Ask your city council to post a "Civil Liberties Safe Zone" sign to let people entering town know that your community has taken a stand for the Bill of Rights.
- Let community members in other towns know about your resolution, and help them get started in their town.
Long Beach (CA) Will Present Readings of "Guantánamo:
Honor Bound to Defend Freedom"
Edith Pollach, of the Long Beach Civil Liberties Defense Coalition, first heard about the play Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom through a Rosenberg Fund for Children newsletter. Robert Meeropol, of the Rosenberg Fund, was instrumental in bringing the BORDC and the Center for Constitutional Rights together for the purpose of putting on local play readings nationwide.
The Long Beach CLDC will present six readings of the play from July 14-16 and July 21-23, with facilitated discussions following the reading. The group snagged professional director Allen Sewell, and has worked extensively with local allies including members of the Muslim community to recruit readers. At least one California Assembly member has promised to read a part at one performance, and a Long Beach city council member will introduce the play.
In a novel approach to getting local attention, the Long Beach CLDC has asked the city council to pass a resolution upholding human rights and decrying torture, and also urging Long Beach residents to see the reading in order to increase public education. If passed before July 14, it might draw more audience members to the six performances at Long Beach’s Freebound Theatre.
What you can do: Start a Guantánamo Reading Project in your community. You'll find the script, step-by-step instructions, director’s notes, program, and post-reading discussion ideas on our website.
Around the BORDC Office
BORDC Welcomes New Summer Interns
We are pleased to welcome three new interns to the BORDC staff. Sherri Brown is a senior at Hampshire College, where she is working on her Division III research project—an examination of immigration policies in the post-9/11 era and the impact on non-citizen communities. Chelsea Gauci is a senior at Smith College, where she is majoring in Spanish Language and Literature, with an additional concentration in Computer Graphic Design. Kelsey Montgomery is a senior at Mt. Holyoke College, where she is majoring in Architectural Studies and minoring in Politics. After graduation she plans to attend law school, with the intent to practice criminal law.
BORDC Relocates
On May 15th, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee moved its office to downtown Northampton, Massachusetts, at 8 Bridge Street, Suite A. We are finally unpacked and settled in, and enjoying our new location at the center of town.
BORDC Spring Fundraising Drive Still On
We launched our spring fundraising campaign in the middle of May. Many thanks to our subscribers who have already given generously to support our work. If you have been meaning to send a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, it's not too late. To mail your check or contribute funds or stock online, go to http://www.bordc.org/donate.php.
In the News
Guantánamo Bay
On Thursday, June 29, at 10 a.m. EDT,the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its ruling on the case of Osama bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who has challenged the legality of the Bush administration's military tribunals to try detainees at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay. Hamdan is one of only ten detainees remaining at the base who has been charged with crimes.
The military tribunals, which have been scheduled and postponed several times, were postponed indefinitely following the suicides of three detainees on Saturday, June 10, which intensified national and international calls for the facility's closure. Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habradi, Yasser Talal Abdulah Yahya al-Zahrani, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed's suicides punctuate the utter hopelessness of the detainees.
The men were among 89 detainees who had attempted to end their lives peacefully through hunger strikes. However, those attempts were thwarted by the U.S. government's need to project to the world a false image of Guantánamo as a humane facility, with good food, pleasant facilities, excellent medical care, and no torture. In fact, the military had devised a new form of torture for the hunger strikers: confinement in a restraint chair while large feeding tubes were threaded through their noses to their stomachs, then brutally pulled out when the feedings were completed. After months of enduring this treatment, three men succeeded in fashioning nooses out of bedsheets and clothing and hanging themselves.
On Monday, June 26, International Day in Support of Survivors and Victims of Torture, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside John Bolton's U.N. office in New York to call for closing the Guantánamo detention center. Among the 27 protesters arrested was Frances Crowe, a founding member of the Northampton Bill of Rights Defense Committee, who founded the American Friends Service Committee's Western Massachusetts office in Northampton.
Enforcing the Laws: Congress and the President
Warrantless NSA surveillance programs. Data mining. A secret international banking surveillance program. The Bush administration refuses to subject these secret executive branch programs to Congress or the courts in order to prove its claim that they protect our constitutional rights. At the same time, the President uses the Constitution to justify his signing statements signaling his intention to ignore laws passed by Congress.
Essentially, the President has it both ways, and so far Congress's efforts to stop it have been little more than show: an occasional hearing, followed by the drafting of laws that essentially give the President the powers he has taken illegally. A case in point is the National Security Surveillance Act (S. 2453), sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill was initially meant to test the constitutional authority of the executive for the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. Senator Specter's most recent substitute bill would eliminate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's status as the "exclusive means" for wiretapping Americans by adding this alternative: "the constitutional authority of the executive." Find more information about this substitute bill here. Senator Specter has ceded to administration demands and relinquished his plan to hold hearings with the telecom companies involved in warrantless wiretapping. Read June 7, 2006, CNN story here. It is clear that Congress is having difficulty standing up to a runaway executive branch, and it's up to all of us to keep the pressure on.
At a June 27 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on presidential signing statements, Senator Specter indicated that he is considering enabling Congress to sue the president over the signing statements. Specter asked Bruce Fein, a Reagan administration Justice Department official, to draft legislation that would allow Congress to sue the president for refusing to enforce Congress’s laws. President Bush has issued signing statements that indicate his unwillingness to follow about 750 laws passed by Congress during his tenure, including the PATRIOT Act reauthorization and the ban on torture.
What you can do
- Act locally by using this BORDC web resource to contact your state public utility commission and/or attorney general's office to insist that investigations be conducted into whether warrantless wiretapping has violated state laws. The ACLU has begun work on these investigations in 20 states, but you can register your group's concerns to give a grassroots backing to those efforts.
- Call today for a meeting with your Congressional representative while they're holding in-district and town hall meetings from July 1-9.
- Join the BORDC conference call Thursday, June 29 to learn more about how to set up successful Congressional meetings and build relationships with your Congressional representatives. Contact Linda Stone or Hope Marston for conference call coordinates.
Editor: Nancy Talanian, Director
Managing Editor: Meredith Gray, Administrator
Contributing Writers:
Hope Marston, West Region Organizer
Linda Stone, East Region Organizer
Sherri Brown, Intern
Chelsea Gauci, Intern
Kelsey Montgomery, Intern
Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Inc.
8 Bridge St., Suite A
Northampton, MA 01060
Web: http://www.bordc.org/
Email: info@bordc.org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
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